Coconut and licorice icecream cake

Tam West

This recipe was created to match the Silver Fern flag design in the 2016 New Zealand Flag Referendum in 2016. Warren says: "We Kiwis love the silver fern almost as much as we love our icecream. This one is all grown up in a bold, yet uniquely subtle way. Kind of like us really. Hokey pokey had better watch out."

Licorice layer

150 g	Licorice straps, good quality, cut into very small pieces (Main)
½ cup	Black Sambuca, or use water (Main)
2 cups	Vanilla ice cream (Main)

Coconut layer

2 cups	Vanilla ice cream (Main)
⅔ cup	Coconut yoghurt, or thickened coconut cream (Main)
½ cup	Coconut, freshly grated (use a fresh coconut or dehydrated if wished) (Main)

Directions

1. Licorice layer: Chop licorice into very small pieces. Add to a saucepan with black sambuca (or water) and simmer gently until the liquor has evaporated and it's all a bit black and jammy. Remove to cool.
2. Whisk 2 cups vanilla icecream until smooth. Fold in the licorice (adding a few drops of black food colouring if you want it really black) and pour into 2 small foil-lined loaf tins. We've used 2 small, 2-cup capacity tins and created a foil-wrapped cardboard divider to echo the diagonal design of the flag. You can also use a regular loaf pan and simply stack the 2 layers on top of each other. Freeze to set.
3. Coconut layer: Whisk 2 more cups vanilla icecream until smooth, then fold in coconut yoghurt (or thickened coconut cream) and grated coconut. Spoon into the loaf pan (remove divider first if you are making them on the diagonal) and refreeze until the cake is fully set. Turn out to serve with extra licorice.

More of Warren's flag-inspired Kiwi dishes

• Kiwi fish burger
• Rolled roasted lamb loin
• Beet and berry spice cake
• Kiwi kumara and mussel fritters